PIP for Depression: Can You Claim and How Much You Get

GOV.UK says PIP can help with extra living costs if you have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability, and difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition. DWP's claim form booklet says PIP is assessed on how your condition affects you, not the condition itself. The assessment looks at 12 activities in total: 10 for the daily living part and 2 for the mobility part.

The NHS says depression is a low mood that lasts for weeks or months and affects your daily life. Its symptoms include having no motivation or interest in things, finding it difficult to make decisions, changes in appetite or weight, and avoiding contact with friends and taking part in fewer social activities.

In DWP's statistics to April 2026, psychiatric disorder was the most commonly recorded disabling condition for PIP claims under normal rules, at 39% of claims, and the assessment award rate for new claims over the five years to April 2026 was 50%. Our PIP award rates by condition guide shows depressive disorder as its own row, using DWP's own figures.

If you live in Scotland, GOV.UK says you need to apply for Adult Disability Payment instead of PIP. GOV.UK has separate guidance for people who live in Northern Ireland.

The DWP guide gives the example of a claimant with a severe depressive illness who may physically be able to prepare food and feed themselves, but may lack the motivation to do so, to the extent of needing prompting from another person to carry out the task. In the regulations, prompting means reminding, encouraging or explaining by another person, and supervision means the continuous presence of another person for the purpose of ensuring your safety.

• ✓Yes: Activity 1, preparing food: descriptor d (2 points) applies if you need prompting to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal, descriptor e (4 points) if you need supervision or assistance, and descriptor f (8 points) if you cannot prepare and cook food. The DWP guide says descriptor D may apply to claimants who lack motivation to prepare and cook a simple meal on the majority of days due to a mental health condition.
• ✓Yes: Activity 2, taking nutrition: descriptor d (4 points) applies if you need prompting to be able to take nutrition. The DWP guide says it applies to claimants who need to be reminded to eat, for example due to a cognitive impairment or severe depression.
• ✓Yes: Activity 3, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition: descriptor b (1 point) applies if you need supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage medication, or to monitor a health condition. The DWP guide says this activity only applies to medication or therapy delivered in the home environment, and gives talking therapies undertaken in the home as an example of therapy.
• ✓Yes: Activity 4, washing and bathing: descriptor c (2 points) applies if you need supervision or prompting to be able to wash or bathe. The DWP guide says it may apply to claimants who lack motivation or need to be reminded to wash, or require supervision for safety reasons.
• ✓Yes: Activity 6, dressing and undressing: descriptor c (2 points) applies if you need prompting to be able to dress, undress or determine appropriate circumstances for remaining clothed, or prompting or assistance to be able to select appropriate clothing.
• ✓Yes: Activity 9, engaging with other people face to face: the DWP guide says this activity is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments. Descriptor b (2 points) applies if you need prompting, descriptor c (4 points) if you need social support, and descriptor d (8 points) if you cannot engage because it causes overwhelming psychological distress, or behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to you or another person.
• ✓Yes: Activity 10, making budgeting decisions: descriptor b (2 points) applies if you need prompting or assistance to make complex budgeting decisions and descriptor c (4 points) if you need it for simple budgeting decisions. The DWP guide says this activity does not take into account a person's choices around budgeting, only their functional ability, and that if someone spends all their money at the start of the month and cannot prioritise spending, this must be due to a health condition to satisfy the descriptor.

The DWP guide says a mental health condition may affect a person's ability to make complex budgeting decisions, and that conditions such as depression can have an impact if they mean the person is unable to respond to changing circumstances and demands. On engaging with other people, it says prompting could take the form of a person acting in a reassuring capacity, for example calming someone who is anxious about interacting with others.

Our PIP descriptors guide lists every descriptor, and the PIP points calculator totals your own.

The DWP guide says mobility activity 1 is designed for limitations on mobility deriving from mental health, cognitive and sensory impairments. In Schedule 1, planning and following journeys scores as follows.

• ✓Yes: Needing prompting to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress: 4 points
• ✓Yes: Unable to follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid: 10 points
• ✓Yes: Unable to undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress: 10 points
• ✓Yes: Unable to follow the route of a familiar journey without another person, an assistance dog or an orientation aid: 12 points

The DWP guide says the threshold for overwhelming psychological distress is a very high one, and that someone who is anxious, worried or emotional does not meet it. The DWP guide says a claimant who suffers overwhelming psychological distress whilst on a familiar journey and needs to be accompanied to overcome it may satisfy descriptor F, and 12 points is the score for the enhanced rate of the mobility part.

There are 2 parts to PIP: a daily living part and a mobility part. Whether you get one or both parts and how much you get depends on how difficult you find everyday tasks and getting around. You are entitled to a part at the standard rate if your ability to carry out its activities is limited, and at the enhanced rate if it is severely limited. You have limited ability where you score at least 8 points in that part, and severely limited ability where you score at least 12 points.

The maximum combined award is £194.60 a week (£778.40 every four weeks). PIP is usually paid every 4 weeks. PIP is tax free, and the amount you get is not affected by your income or savings. You can get PIP even if you are working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.

GOV.UK says you might be eligible for a Motability Scheme vehicle if you get the higher mobility rate of PIP. Full amounts, including monthly equivalents, are in our PIP rates 2026/27 guide.

GOV.UK says to include supporting documents with your form if you have them, for example prescription lists, care plans, or information from your doctor or others involved in your care. DWP's booklet lists reports or care or treatment plans from occupational therapists, GPs or consultants, social workers, community psychiatric nurses and learning disability support teams, and reports, statements or diaries from carers or family members, as things you could send.

• It also lists hospital discharge or outpatient clinic letters about your condition or diagnosis, letters from your consultant about your condition or diagnosis, and your current repeat prescription list.
• For each activity DWP asks you to tell it what the difficulty is, how often you have good days and bad days, and how or why your condition varies over the course of a day, week or year.
• DWP asks whether you can complete each activity safely, within an acceptable time (the booklet gives about twice the time it may take another person who does not have a disability), to an acceptable standard, and as often as you need to.
• The booklet also asks about any aids or adaptations you use, help you get from another person, and any help you feel you need but do not get.

• If you disagree with a decision about your claim, you can ask for mandatory reconsideration. You usually need to ask for mandatory reconsideration within one month of the date of the decision.
• Someone will look at your whole benefit claim again, and your benefit may stop, stay the same, increase or decrease.
• You can send evidence, for example new medical evidence, or reports or care plans from specialists, therapists or nurses.
• If you still disagree, you can appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, which GOV.UK says is impartial and independent of government. It is free to appeal, and you usually need to appeal within one month of getting your mandatory reconsideration decision.
• DWP statistics to July 2026 say that for initial PIP decisions following an assessment between April 2021 and March 2026, 15% of completed mandatory reconsiderations (excluding withdrawn) resulted in a change to the award.
• In the Ministry of Justice's April to June 2026 statistics, the overturn rate in favour of the claimant for PIP cases cleared at a hearing was 67%.

Full guides: PIP appeals and the latest appeal success rates.